*HP EliteBook 8760w Owners Lounge*

The hardware ID identifies it as AUO159D, which is an AU Optronics panel, and interestingly, my older 8530w also has an AUO panel and it's great (aside from the CCFL backlight which looks kinda bleak compared to LED ).

I found a review here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Deviltech-Fragbook-DTX-Clevo-P170HM-Notebook.45594.0.html apparently that laptop has the same panel, so anyone who's interested can get a better idea of the quality from their tests.

 

Seems to be 72% as well. AUO makes nice panels, so you can't go wrong with either.

 

I run dual 4K2K monitors (Acer XB280HK) with DisplayPort with my 8760w but I also updated my 8760w to run an Nvidia GTX 680M graphics card. I think your question really was about using DP. I can plug a single 4K monitor directly into the 8760w, but I use the HP docking station which has two DisplayPort's for my dual 4K2K setup. "8K2K" and the 8760w!!

 

While I am here posting a reply to another topic about the 8760w, I just want to say...

I just LOVE this 8760w and I have been using it daily and nightly for almost FOUR YEARS!! This 8760w is a tank! What makes this laptop excellent in my opinion and experience with it is the combination of the fantastic DreamColor IPS display, easily upgradeable hardware, and built like a tank.

If you are considering buying one used, I would highly recommend the 8760w.

 

I have started using a CAD software app that is running slowly on my 8760w. I have since found out why. This CAD software like many others, will ONLY use a single core/thread of the the CPU no matter how many cores/threads your CPU have. Yes, the CAD programmers are lazy and haven't figure out how to offload more to GPU's. I now want the highest performing core/thread CPU I can put in my 8760w without changing the cooling system.

Question: What is most powerful CPU you have installed in your 8760w?

The highest performance CPU authorized by HP is the "i7-2920XM, 2.5-GHz (turbo up to 3.5-GHz) quad-core extreme processor, 8MB L3 cache, 8 threads"

That CPU has Thermal Design Power rating of 55 which means the 8760w should be able to not overheat with any CPU rated at TDP 55 or lower. If my thinking is wrong here, please tell me. I was able to get away with upgrading my 8760w to an Nvidia GTX 680M following the same TDP strategy for the GPU thermal cooling ratings.

Here are other high performance Intel CPU's supporting the same socket and TDP of 55
Intel® Core™ i7-3940XM Processor Extreme Edition (8M Cache, up to 3.90 GHz)
Intel® Core™ i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition (8M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz)
Intel® Core™ i7-2960XM Processor Extreme Edition (8M Cache, up to 3.70 GHz)

Can anyone come up with reason why I can't install an i7-3940XM in an 8760w?

8760w BIOS whitelist for CPU models?

 

Thanks for the info regarding 4K.

You can't upgrade 6 series chipset (what yours is) to 3rd gen i-processors, 7 series on other side can accept both 2nd and 3rd gen i-processors and then again, not all of them (BIOS most likely).

 

I read from a Chinese forum that you can upgrade your 8760w to 8770w simply by replacing the mobo and daughter board. If this is true, you should be able to use 3940xm on your machine.

 

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction for researching it.

The 8760w is based on the QM67 chipset and even though it has the needed 988B cpu socket for Ivy Bridge compatibility cpu's, the highest CPU performance CPU the 8760w is capable of is:

Max CPU for 8760w: 2nd Gen i7-2960XM which also shipped in HP 8760w model "H3F87US#ABA"

HP model 8770w is based on the QM77 chipset, which will support up to i7-3940XM

 

Exactly. Happy upgrading! Sadly it seems that the CPU can't be overclocked, but by any means, the 2960XM is indeed the best CPU you can put in there, overclockable, or not. Just a heads-up.

@sinitar - It's true, they are basically the same chassis, just different MoBo. Can you justify the price though? If 8770w is overclockable (through ThrottleStop, forget about BIOS overclocking option in such machine), then I think it's more than worthy, otherwise - not really.

 

Unfortunately we cannot overclock on QM67 and QM77 according to my search. The feature is locked by the BIOS ( even ThrottleStop cannot change the multiplier).

 

That's odd, I thought ThrottleStop is almighty Seriously though, I think Alienwares were able to use it, even with the stock BIOS, could be wrong though.

 

I purchased this morning a "refurbished" 8770w motherboard for $160 (USD) and an Intel i7-3920XM. I intend to update my 8760w to an 8770w motherboard.

I compared large resolution pictures of the motherboards from the 8760w and the 8770w. The two motherboards look visually identical. The motherboard from an 8770w (QM77 chipset) will definitely physically fit. I also verified the CPU heatsink and GPU heatsink/fan combination components are identical parts between the two laptop models so thermal issues should not be a problem. This is also supported by the fact that the i7-3920XM chip is heat/cooling rated at 55 TDP which is the same for the fastest 8760w cpu.

I chose the i7-3920XM because there is a fair amount of overclocking research completed from all the Alienware M18x R2 laptop owners with 3920XM installed.

So now I am starting to be already disappointed that you believe the 8770w motherboard may have overclocking locked out by the HP BIOS. I will at least go from my current max 2.9GHz with my current i7-2630QM to 3.8Ghz on the i7-3920XM. Max stable overclocking on 3920XM seems to be 4.4GHz but not sure if the 8760w air cooling solution would support it.

I had previously spent time looking into unlocking the HP BIOS. There is no way to do it. I dumped all the BIOS modules out and the main needed module is digitally signed with RSA RC4 encryption. Even if the module was modified, without being able to re-sign the module with the correct encrypted key held by HP, the BIOS would never allow it. In the "enterprise" world, that is a good thing so that the laptop isn't compromised your company's trade secrets stolen.

HP Part Number:
688746-001 - HP EliteBook 8770W QM77 4D Motherboard

My current i7-2630QM cpu benchmark: 5,596 (Passmark)
Stock-clock i7-3920XM should get me to 9,232 (Passmark)

Goal is to be able work with larger 3D object in CAD programs on my current 8K2K dual monitor setup. Current problem is on my i7-2630QM, a single cpu thread pegs at 100% for long periods of time while the other seven CPU threads sit idling, and my Nvidia 680M gpu stays below 5% during CAD rotation and manipulation of larger 3D objects.

In theory, I should only have to replace the motherboard and put an updated CPU in (famous last words).

 

Apparently, I didn't do my homework well enough. User XS850SG has already upgraded to an 8770w motherboard.

8770w motherboard plus...
8770 USB 3.0 board 6050A2479601
8770 Top cover & touchpad (the touchpad has a different Ziff cable connection on the 8770) 652536-001 6050A2479401
8770w Card Reader Board w/cable 6050A2479501

 

So, apparently I missed your post. I am upgrading my 8760w to 8770w. I naively believed I just needed to upgrade the motherboard, and I have already upgrade my gpu to a Nvidia 680M to run with dual 4K2K monitors.

If you don't mind me asking, what were the reasons you had to upgrade the other components?
Touchpad you said had a different connector. No way around a new top cover?
Why USB/display port board?
Why card reader board? Also, photos I found of the 8770w card reader board do not look the same, almost like it has an extra card reader.

 

ThrottleStop could not overclock the 2nd and 3rd Gen XM CPUs on many motherboards. If you have this problem, try using MaxMulti that my friend Dufus wrote.

MaxMulti
https://www.sendspace.com/file/comwv8

MaxMulti has access to a register in the chipset that can block overclocking that ThrottleStop does not have access to. After running MaxMulti, restart ThrottleStop and see if it makes any difference. On some motherboards, it can remove the overclocking limitation.

 

Thanks @unclewebb as always, more than helpful! A lot of guys around here would be happy to try. As for me it runs fine, but I'm 1st gen I didn't know about the motherboard to motherboard thing, since there aren't a lot of 2nd and 3rd gen machines (even later as well, because 16:9) that I was looking at, so thanks for the input.

 

After being a 8740w user for nearly 5 years, I finally became a member of the 8760w family after getting a good deal. I bought a used 8760w in excellent condition from ebay for 390USD. The specs are:
Dreamcolor 2 Screen, 2820mq, 12G ram, Quadro 4000m, 320G HDD. I put in an ssd and it runs very nicely besides my 8740w.

 

Interesting, so it could just be a limitation of the GPU? I'd need to look into the specifications of the 3000M I'm running.

EDIT: nvm: " External Display via DP connector: 2560x1600"

EDIT2: is it possible to install a k3100m on the 8760w?

 

Definitely possible. Seen people using k4100m and k5100m. There's no reason not working with k3100m

 

To plug in each of these boards you need the Aladdin version of the boards. How they attach to the 8770 motherboard is different than the 8760 version. The Touchpad and card reader have larger ziff cables on the 8770, thus the old 8760 version ziff cables are too small for the 8770 board connectinos. The connection is totally different from the USB/display port board as well.

As for the top cover- it's the same other than the touchpad. I just found that I couldn't find just the touchpad for sale- I had no choice but to buy the entire top cover.

Just for reference: you still have the USB 2.0 ports available if you do not upgrade the USB/DP board. So if you are ok with not having USB 3.0 or display port, it will still boot and function without it. The same goes for the touchpad and card reader. I, like you, assumed I could just pop in the new motherboard and processor, so I ran my 8760/70 without the daughter card, card reader, and touchpad while I ordered in those parts. The pointer stick in the middle of the keyboard and the top row of mouse buttons still worked. I hate the pointer stick though- so I replaced the top cover.

All-in-all, it was a fantastic upgrade. I have not tried to over-clock the CPU yet (no need running the 3940xm), but I was very happy to be able to instal the intel 7260 ac wifi and not have the bios lock me out of that upgrade. The 8770 bios is far less locked down than the 8760 from everything I've read and now tried.

One further difference not mentioned previously- the bluetooth board is also upgraded in the 8770 compared to the 8760 (BT 4.0 instead of 2.0). However, the 8760 bluetooth module works fine- I didn't bother upgrading that.

 

Since I got a 8760w recently, I am doing research on overclocking possibilities with this model or even 8770w. I read from the web that you cannot change the multiplier of any CPU in QM67, QM77 motherboards. Could you try to overclock you CPU to see how it goes?

 

I just joined the forms and ended up picking up an EliteBook 8760w which had a Quadro 3000M GPU. After seeing the success with the GTX680M I decided to upgrade my GPU. Last week I was able to get a GTX880M on ebay for a great price and took apart my notebook to install it. My notebook starts up fine and boots into desktop just fine but I have distorted graphics. I tried to install drivers and I can seem to get modded drivers to work correctly. I'm thinking part of the issue with the graphics is the the Windows 8.1 generic driver is currently installed. I'm currently using Windows 8.1 64bit edition. Any folks who are running modded drivers I hope you chime in to help get me over the hump.

 

Hey guys... I have a question of course. I'm trying to use the second HDD bay but it's not being recognized at all. I put a 700GB HDD inside it and a 300GB.. Still wont recognize it. Tried to even do the dskchk through cmd promt (admin)... Would it only work with SSD or is there something I'm missing? ANY HELP WILL HELP!!! THANKS
-Zay

 

Try reinstall win8.1 with UEFI. This seems to be the way to make newer cards (Kepler and Maxwell) run in 8760w. I saw people reporting successful experience running 970m with this method.

 

Try a CD/DVD drive to see if the sata port is working in the first place.

 

Thank you for the reply much appreciated. And to answer your question, I do not think that my CD/DVD drive sata port is working. Well its reading the disk telling me 0 bytes free. So im guessing the port is not working. Its not playing the CD's or DVD's Just reading them.

 

and to also add to that my CD/DVD drive opens here and there randomly. Any help will help once again.... We are making steps here I am going to look up this sata stuff.

 

To confirm that the port is not working, try a bootable OS dvd to see if you can read the disc when you are not in an operating system. It's not the end of the world if that sata port is broken. You still have one SSD and one HDD.

 

I have now bought the HP Advanced Docking Station (the one with 2 Displayport) and 2 Wieson G9857C219-013-H B 1223 DP to Single Link DVI adapters so that I could connect 4 monitors (laptop, 1 VGA, 2 DVI through the active adapters), but when I connect the adapters to the laptop (both in the docking station and in the port on the laptop), the monitor shows up as HDMI, which means it's in legacy mode and it doesn't work.

I checked everywhere regarding the adapters, and they seem genuine active adapters, even recommended on the AMD website, but the laptop recognizes them as passive for some reason...
Has anyone had this kind of issue and perhaps found how to solve it?

 

Hi there fellow 8760w users
I have a problem with my 8760w (2630 QM, quadro 4000M, IPS panel), and it's a dead GPU (technician's diagnosis) .

I've dissasembled the whole thing, only left motherboard, USB board, SSD, 1 RAM and CPU in. Like that, the mother board starts, but with GPU inserted it doesn't. I also don't get any picture with GPU unplugged, so I guess 8760w doesn't support integrated graphics ?
Also, with gpu out, the battery is charging 1 out of 20 times i plug the AC adapter in - any ideas what could be the cause ?


So I have 2 options, buy a new quadro 4000M or mount another GPU ( Nvidia GTX ? ) ?

Since I am a student with limited income I am looking for a new GPU with same or higher performance as Quadro 4000M, but for a moderate cost, so Quadro 5010M and similiar high priced gpus are out of question

1. What GTX card would be equivalent in performance to Q 4000m (GTX x60 /x70/ x80) and which generation would fit without major problems (GTX 4XX/ 5XX/ 6XX ) ?

2. Is it possible to install a GPU from another company's laptop (for example GTX680M from dell alienware or gtx 560M from Toshiba) or would some kind of whitelist black magic block it ?

I use my computer for general use and mostly modelling, CAD drawing and occasional rendering .



I would appreciate any answers and I thank you in advance for your time

 

Hey Gloin,

Your damaged card is a Quadro 4000M? And it boots up without it plugged in (but with a black screen, obviously)?

I've had the exact same issue with mine!

Turned out to be a capacitor that shorted (no visible damage! but testing with a multimeter will reveal it) - if that's the case, it is possible to repair, it's only a matter of replacing the bad cap(s), any technician can do it.

Anyway, I don't know what GTX series would work, from what I've read anything up to 680M should work, but the performance will be much lower than the Quadros in CAD/rendering - nVidia seems to be limiting the performance of consumer cards in professional apps ( http://doc-ok.org/?p=304, look up specific tests on Google)

I have a Quadro FX 3800M (from the older 8740w), it works in the 8760w. I also bought a HP Quadro 3000M as a replacement and it also works (no surprise there, thankfully my 4000m is still alive ).

 

Jotm, thank you for your reply !

Yes, I was told that my Quadro 4000M is damaged.

- It boots with GPU unplugged (only power and hdd LEDs on, screen is of course black, but the processor generates a bit of heat),
- It won't even star or blink any LED with GPU plugged in.

Battery LED also blinks once when I plug the AC adapter in.


- With shorted capacitor, do you mean a capacitor on motherboard or on the GPU ?
Do you perhaps have a photo, showing that capacitor, so I can check mine with multimeter ?

 

Wait, I forgot to mention - my laptop also tripped the power adapter's short circuit protection - the green led turned off completely. Does yours do that ( don't keep it plugged for long if you try, it may further damage the board)?

http://i.imgur.com/GqAbxYB.jpg

Mine showed no damage, then I left it with the battery in for a few days and it suddenly powered on. When I opened it up, that capacitor was burned out completely (which is why it started working since there was no short circuit anymore) and there was damage to the motherboard, too. Weird stuff.

Anyway, there are two groups of capacitors on the front - the 4 where the arrow is and the 4 at the bottom of the picture. They're wired in parallel and are filtering the power to the GPU I believe. They should show resistance up to infinite - you can easily find the group that's shorted (IF that's the problem, of course). Then it's a matter of unsoldering, testing them individually to find the culprit and then resoldering (not hard, but it's high temperature solder, you'll need a good rework station or powerful iron). I used a capacitor from a dead 460M board, it's higher capacity but works well.

It's worth a try to test them, but it could be the GPU itself that is damaged or some other components, which aren't as easy to obtain and replace....

 

240W adapter for my 8760w doesn't have any LED's on it, but I have tried to connect a 200W adapter from 8740w which has an LED and the short circuit protection was triggered.
I haven't left it plugged in for too long.

However, i have plugged in a 90W adapter from Probook and in that case, the battery LED blinks once every few seconds and the fan turns 1/4 of a spin at the same time. This happens even with GPU plugged in, but i haven't tried it with GPU removed from motherboard.
Some gremlins must have gotten into my laptop, no other explanation


EDIT: thank you for detailed photo of your gpu and capacitors

 

Please do not plug in any other adapter! They may be incompatible or have a different SC protection, that can damage your computer even further. Also, the 90W is not powerful enough for the 8760w, in normal operation you'd experience the same thing or a quick power-on then sudden shut down.

Anyway, the issue seems very similar to mine, if the adapter's SC protection is triggered, there's something on the video board that is shorted. If it's not the GPU itself, it could be worth repairing...

Also, when installing a video card, make sure the power components (including the capacitors) are fitted with thermal pads - at that wattage, they need to be cooled.

 

Ok, good advice. My tech has checked motherboard and other components and said no components other than GPU are damaged.
Tomorrow I will have a detailed info about damage on the gpu and will post here.

 

So it's time to get an upgraded GPU!

 

Seems so


Here is the visible damage:
- a capacitor on the side, opposite fo gold connector
-leaked solder from one side of R39 chip. I've also attached a photo of the other side of the same chips.






Today I got an offer for Quadro 5010M, which it was pulled out of Dell M6600 laptop so I am wondering:

---> Can I install this card in my 8760w?

Phisically there is no doubt about it because it was also offered in HP, but I am not sure about drivers, VBIOS and HP whitelist blocking.

---> Would my laptop even boot with new GPU inserted ?


Thank you for your answers

 

Is there a cost on replacing the GPU or you are covered by warranty? It should work but I wouldn't pay too much for that GPU myself since it is also a Fermi card (performance-wise better than 4000M with small margin). Try to get a Kepler Quadro like k3100m, k4100m, k5100m etc.

 

The GPU died 2 days after the warranty expired , so it is on my expense.

 

I just checked the price of that card on ebay and it is ridiculous. Myself would not go for quadro 5010m unless I get a good deal (<150 usd maybe). You can buy another quadro 4000m from ebay for even less if you have time to wait for an open auction. You can also consider quadro k4000m which is much more powerful than 5010m. It is sold on ebay for 220-250 USD.
You can have more options if you are fine taking non-quadro cards.

 

Yes, you can run the Quadro 5010m. The gpu heat sink is specific to Nvidia or AMD Firepro. If you have a Firepro gpu now, you will need to buy the Nvidia heat sink replacement part. There is not a BIOS whitelist that will prevent running an Nvidia gpu. The Quadro 5010m is a 100 watt TDP (Thermal Design Power rating) and MXM 3.0b standard card form factor. It will fit and most importantly, the standard 8760w Nvidia heat sink will properly cool the 100W card. I run an Nvidia 680M without issue.

You will need to update the Nvidia driver for the 5010 in a 8760w before running the Nvidia driver setup because it is not a standard configuration (it is for the 8770w though). You will need to edit driver files ..\ListDevices.txt (one line edit) and ..\Display.Driver\nvmii.inf (3 lines to edit). See earlier post about editing driver files.

If the card was pulled from another system you will need more than just thermal paste, you will need replacement thermal pads too. Some of the chips sit well below the heat sink and require thermal pads that vary from 1mm to 3mm thick (or 1mm pads stacked). Before putting thermal paste on the GPU, put thermal pads on, replace heat sink and fully tighten screws, then remove heat sink and confirm the thermal pads were slightly compressed by the heat sink. You need to confirm the pads are at a proper height to touch the heat sink. Then put thermal past on GPU and re-install the heat sink.

I have research and run benchmarks for Quadro vs. running GTX 680M and the 680M beats the Quadro for CAD computing and all other metrics. GTX gpu's are MUCH cheaper than Quadro.

 

Eurocom sells a Nvidia MXM 3.ob thermal pad replacement kit for GeForce and Quadro cards but I haven't used them. Their price would be worth it if their pads came the correct height (1mm - 3mm) for the various chips on GPU board.

 

Post your GPU hardware ID and I can confirm/post what driver file edits are required.

Device Manager, Display Adapters, Properties of your GPU (right mouse), Details tab, Hardware ID

Latest Nvidia driver for 880M is "353.30".

 

The Quadros seem a bit better for modeling apps like 3DS Max, Maya, Solidworks, etc. I think most people agree that Nvidia is limiting the performance of their consumer cards in professional applications (to sell more Quadros, likely).

Look at the benchmarks in this review - the Quadro 5000 with its pitiful 352 cores and 120 GB/s memory bandwidth is almost twice as fast as the GTX 680 (1536 cores and 192 GB/s bandwidth) in Maya and 3DS Max and it's about as fast in AutoCAD:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/nvidia-quadro-k5000_7.html#sect1

And these benchmarks on NotebookCheck:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-680M.72679.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-K4000M.76897.0.html

The 680m is faster in everything when suddenly, it drops to half the performance of the K4000m in SPECviewperf.

Also, for used mobile cards Quadros aren't all that expensive compared to GTXs (K4000m and GTX 680m are about the same price on eBay)....

 

Yeh, but here in europe prices are quite a bit higher and offer much worse than in US and A


There are no gtx 680M's for sale (not for a normal price) so...:
I got an offer for 5010M for around 350€ (cca 400 $), and for K3100M for about 350 $.
Performance seems more or less the same, if I haven't missed anything ?
What do you guys suggest?

Also, 5010M has consumption of 100W and K3100M has 75W. Would I have any problems with K3100M's 75W if my previous gpu (4000M) had a consumption of 100W ? (my simple logics tells me it's fine since I have the heatsink for 100W cards)

 

I would choose k3100m over 5010m. Lower power/heat/price with similar performance.

 

Even the prices in the US have much room to go down. In China people can get a new 970m for ~350$.

 

Hi Guys,
I have a plan to upgrade my 8760w VGA from 3000M to K5100M, the problem I'm not sure about its compatibility with latest bios updates, mine is F.60.
I'm just afraid about the whitelist on latest BIOS.
I have tried to roll back this bios to older bios using UEFI but didn't work since this bios is classified as critical and security updates.
ftp://hp.com/ftp4/pub/softpaq/sp70501-71000/sp70944.html
ftp://hp.com/ftp4/pub/softpaq/sp70501-71000/sp70944.exe

Is there anyone having experience on it?
I just found 1 example of upgrading 8760w VGA to K5100M on below link :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/hp-elitebook-8760w-owners-lounge.581056/page-79#post-9479823

Please help to advise whether K5100M will be compatible with my 8760w current BIOS F.60 or not?

Thank you.

 

Would it be possible to install a 970m on the 8760w?